The office of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice has taken over the prosecution of the criminal charges against Ghanaian investors and owners of JonahCapital Ltd over the River Park Estate dispute.
The Police had on June 25 filed a 26-count criminal charge before an FCT High Court in Gwarinpa against directors of JonahCapital Ltd, namely Sam Jonah, Kojo Ansah, Victor Quainoo, a company, Mobus Property Nigeria Ltd, and their Nigerian lawyer, Abu Arome, alleging forgery of the ownership document of the company.
At the resumed hearing on Thursday, a state counsel, Aderonke Imana, informed the court that the AGF had instructed her to take over the matter, relying on the powers granted to him in Section 174 of the Nigerian Constitution, 1999.
“I have the instructions of the Attorney General of the Federation to take over the case from the Police, so that we can have the opportunity to review the case file because there are a lot of letters and petitions to that effect,” she said.
The counsel noted that the Police have so far failed to release the case file to the AGF. In the absence of any objection, Justice Modupe-Osho Adebiyi granted the application and fixed the matter for further hearing on November 11.
Opposing the charges, JonahCapital directors and their lawyer contended that it was wrong to criminalise routine filings with the CAC in the land disputes.
They recalled that they had notified land subscribers and the public in May that the police were trying to suppress the 10-man investigation panel that examined the same allegations of forgery made against them by one Paul Odili of Paulo Homes, who is an adverse claimant in the matter.
They further contended that the latest charges arose from a fresh report hastily put together by the Head of the IGP Monitoring Unit, which indicted them without hearing from them.
The Minister of the FCT, Nyesom Wike, had on September 18, disclosed on a national TV that a ministerial panel on the matter found that the FCT signed an agreement with JonahCapital Nigeria Ltd., as the original owners of the Plot 4 Cadastral, Zone E30 Lugbe, Abuja, during the tenure of President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Wike said a dispute arose when JonahCapital brought in a third party (Paulo Homes) to help them obtain building approvals from FCT Development Control in exchange for some shares.
The minister also affirmed the Ghanaian investors’ ownership of River Park Estate.
